courageously slipping into rebel-held benghazi on board a cargo freighter. it was an act of bravery that typified chris stevens' service to our country, and his devotion to our nation's ideals and his commitment to build bridges between americans and arabs, americans and muslims. chris remained in benghazi throughout the war, standing with the people of libya during some of the darkest and most difficult hours in their struggle for freedom. he became, in fact, the bright symbol of america, heroic and inspiring figure to many libyans. as senator mccain and senator graham and i heard during our visits there and was thus the natural choice of president obama to become our ambassador to tripoli after the cad cads -- qadhafi regime fell. this is why his death at the hand of violent extremists in benghazi which was the seat of the revolution against qadhafi, is so tragic and infuriating. there is obviously much we still don't know about what happened at our consulate in benghazi yesterday, but what is clear is that these attackers have to be apprehended and must b